But I also noticed that they use a bit of “slight of hand” with the information they dish out.

In the recycling episode, they pounded on the fact that recycling products costs at least as much as making it from scratch - if not more. But they didn't address whether or not recycling was helping to curb the depletion of nonrenewable resources (like petroleum).

Every episode is set up to pit their chosen sets of facts against a straw man of weak arguments. Naturally, they win. Sometimes they do it better than others, but every episode has its flaws.

I didn't see the 9/11 episode, but as for 9/11 conspiracy theories – some are wild and crazy and others or at least plausible. To lump them all together as if one has to believe everything (like the guy who surfed down the rubble) or nothing.

Like all major events, the truth will take a long time to come out. Historians still find evidence contradicting established beliefs from centuries ago.

Of course, the die-hard conspiracy theorist may seem like a looney. But those of us that keep an open mind won't be too surprised when the “official” story starts to chip away at least a little bit.

If I had told you five years ago that our president would start a war and use either false or mistaken evidence to convince people it was necessary, many would think I was crazy. But only the ones who always believe the “official” stories.

hmmmm…. the cold sholder eh? damn …. i guess i'll just KEEP ANNOYING YOU… wait I better not….. ahem… yah this…. uh…. topic…. is ok…. even tho i never herd of these guys they sound ok to me….. there not no Adem Sandler, or Gilfer Godfry, but they'll have to do…

if you go to a website called www.google.com and do an image search for Penn & Teller, there might be a photo or two.

(…sorry, my sarcasm mode is in full swing today. I'm just a jerk. :oops: )

But then, if the level-headed conspiracy theorists don't accept the bomb, missle, and alternate plane theories, then what evidence are they appealing to?

Well, I guess there are a few different schools of conspiracy theories. I think that I can at least see merit in the conspiracy theory that things that 9/11 was in some way allowed to happen, either by ignoring gaps in our security or by more overt action.

But that doesn't even address any of the science that some theorists disagree upon.

Science-wise, the only real sticking point I have that makes me somewhat conspiratorial is the fact that there have been no pictures released of the jet going into the Pentagon, even though the whole thing was almost certainly filmed from the hotel security cameras.

Why? I don't know, but it bugs me. I've read the official version that says that even though a jet is much wider than the hole that it created, it is consistent with what should happen. Maybe. I don't know, not being a scientist. But what happened to the wings?

Of course, if you buy the theory that it was a missile and not a jet, then there's the brand new problem of an entire jet that disappeared. And I firmly have to choose the simpler theory, because of Occam's Razor.

The segment on recycling, and the massive confusion of the folks who were put through that experiment with the five different colored bins – “That one's for slightly soiled toilet paper!”

The bottled water segment where they set up a “water steward” in a restaurant to sell people expensive designer-label bottled waters that actually came out of a hose in the back alley.

The “Feng Shui” consultants who arranged the same living room in wildly different ways, while charging mad money for their pleasant chores. I would have gone into that business if I had the stomach for it.

And last but not least, the “Tantric sex” instructor who gets a lap dance and gets paid for it!